Articles & Op-Eds

William Shakespeare famously declared that “past is prologue,” and the bard’s words ought to give us pause as we assess the first scene of this very strange play in which we now find ourselves as a nation.

Wanted to be sure you saw today’s op-ed by Democratic Whip Steny H. Hoyer (MD-5) and Congressman Chris Van Hollen (MD-8) online in The Baltimore Sun about recent actions taken by House Republicans on the Select Panel to Attack Women’s Health to subpoena a reproductive health care practitioner in Maryland and several Maryland health care providers and first responders.

The story goes that the late Sen. Daniel Patrick Moynihan (D-N.Y.) was in a heated argument with one of his colleagues. After 10 minutes or so, the other Senator threw up his hands and said, “You may disagree with me, but I’m entitled to my own opinions.”

I hope the Democrats, under Speaker Nancy Pelosi, keep pushing to set a deadline for withdrawal from Iraq, because they are providing two patriotic services that the Republicans failed to offer in the previous four years.

A top House Democrat is urging the ethics committee to investigate whether Rep. Joel Hefley (R-Colo.) was forced out as the panel’s chairman in retaliation for the committee’s decision to admonish Majority Leader Tom DeLay (R-Texas) on two different occasions during the 108th Congress.
Minority Whip Steny Hoyer (D-Md.) told reporters Tuesday that the ethics committee should look into whether Hefley was threatened, if it has not done so already, and whether Hefley’s removal from the chairmanship of the panel last week was a response to the committee’s rulings during its investigation of allegations made by former Rep. Nick Smith (R-Mich.), as well as an ethics complaint filed against DeLay by former Rep. Chris Bell (D-Texas).

House Republicans opened a new session of Congress yesterday by pushing through a new rule curtailing the ways ethics investigations can be launched, a day after they retreated on two other ethics moves.

Emboldened by their election success, House Republicans changed their rules yesterday to allow Majority Leader Tom DeLay (Tex.) to keep his post even if a grand jury indicts him, and Senate GOP leaders continued to weigh changing long-standing rules governing filibusters to prevent Democrats from blocking President Bush's most conservative judicial nominees.

House Republicans changed their Conference rules Wednesday to allow indicted party leaders and committee chairmen an opportunity to remain in their posts, even as Democrats moved to toughen their own internal guidelines on the subject.

Democrats demanded Thursday that Tom DeLay resign as U.S. House majority leader, claiming that a series of ethics reprimands reveals a pattern of corruption that renders the Texan unfit for a position of leadership.

House Democratic Whip Steny Hoyer criticized the Republican-controlled Congress on Saturday for "surrendering to its own intransigence and admitting that it cannot complete the work the people sent us here to do."

Top House Democrats today condemned Representative Tom DeLay, the leader of the Republican majority, declaring that the latest ethics case against him proved that he had been corrupted by power and was unfit to lead.

House Democratic leaders and several outside groups called for Majority Leader Tom DeLay to resign his post yesterday, saying that three admonishments by the House ethics committee in one week disqualify him for the chamber's second-highest leadership job. Fellow Republicans staunchly defended the Texas lawmaker, even as some said the consecutive rebukes may complicate his prospects of ever becoming speaker.

House Democratic leaders and public interest groups today called
on House Majority Leader DeLay to resign his leadership post,
noting that Wednesday's rebuke by the House Ethics Committee is
the fourth against DeLay in his career -- with three of them coming in the last week

Both the poverty rate and the ranks of the uninsured increased in 2003 for the third straight year, the Census Bureau said Thursday in a report that gave Democrats new ammunition for their assaults on President Bush’s domestic policies.